Live Music

The Subways again were a slightly odd band to be playing at this festival as musically they didn’t fit in. However, they also put on an hour of catchy tunes, with a much heavier edge live. The Subways are a great band to photograph as they are always moving around, and have tonnes more energy than most bands around.

Although The King Blues didn’t fit musically with a lot of the other bands at the festival, they put on the best performance I’ve ever seen from them. The crowd response was amazing, and the set was just a big sing along. From a photography point of view, the sun really came out for the band, making it slightly harder, but with three songs to photography I got my settings sorted in the first song, and it was easy from then onwards.

Madina Lake played a great set at Hevy. Missing bassist Matthew Leone who is still recovering from his recent attack, the three other members pulled off the show. With only Nathan and Mateo to fill the whole stage meant lots of time without a member near to photograph (only had my 24-70mm lens) but managed to get a few shots I’m happy with.

In my view, Young Guns have been pretty much the British band of the year so far. Not only are they outstanding live, but they have just released the best album of the year ‘All Our Kings Are Dead’. Since I last photographed them, on the Kerrang! tour back in January, their live show has improved to the point where they can win over any crowd. Best set of the weekend.

Sunday at Hevy was a very different day. Apart from headliners Glassjaw, the main stage was more Rock/Pop than Saturdays Hardcore. This was good from a photography point of view as we got to photograph three songs from each bands set (apart from Glassjaw). As I have so many pictures I’m happy with from the Sunday, I’m doing a blog post per band.

First up were Me Vs Hero, a band I’ve never seen before, but had heard loads of good things apart, especially via Punktastic. They are the punky pop stuff I love, and thanks to their energy and none stop jumping, they were great to photograph. Really looking forward to seeing them on tour with Deaf Havana in November.

Pulled Apart By Horses were the band everyone wanted to see/photograph in the Rock Sound tent on Saturday. With a limit of four photographers at a time (there was a queue of about 50 photographers wanting to shoot them), and only one song to get the shots made this hard to shoot. I was in the second group of photographers, and by the time the first group had left and I got into position the band were already a minute into the one song I got.

The main stage at Hevy on Saturday was full of really heavy bands, which made the security a bit ‘on edge’ for most of the day. The number of photographers (usually between 25 and 35) meant that there was many bands the photographers only got one or two songs to take pictures, before being moved out of the photopit. The number of photographers also meant is was harder to move about, so for some sets I mainly tried to get a good spot and then stayed there.

So I spent last weekend (7th-8th August) at Hevy Festival, a great small festival held in Kent. Over the weekend I photographed 24 bands, so over the next few days I’ll be posting pictures from all of these sets. This post is all about the bands I photographed in the Red Bull Bedroom Jam tent on Saturday. A lot of great bands played this tent over the weekend, including several bands I had wanted to see for a long time.

Second night with Army Of Freshmen. This show was a tiny bit harder to photograph than the previous night in Southampton. Because I was playing with Lost? at The Relentless Garage (just a mile down the road), I didn’t get to O2 Academy until Army Of Freshmen were about to start. With no photopit I shot the majority of the set from the side of the stage, with an obstructed view, and some of it in the middle of the crowd. The band played another great set. I’m looking forward to the guys coming back, hopefully at the end of the year/start of next year.

Second night in a row with Lost? this time at Relentless Garage in London. The band were only playing two songs, and I was playing Synth on the second song, giving me about 3 minutes to grab a few shots before getting on stage. As with Hey! Alaska, Lost? managed to impress the judges, and are playing at the HMV Forum in Kentish Town on 9th September.

I was disappointed to miss Hey! Alaska when they played Norwich a few days earlier, but glad to find out they were at the HMV showcase I was at in London. Despite only getting to play two songs, they rocked the place and got through to play at HMV Forum in a few weeks time. I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

Great couple of days with the guys from Army Of Freshmen. The band are some of the coolest and nicest people around (we have a shared love of The Get Up Kids). They were happy for me to photograph the soundcheck, the whole of their set, as well as telling me to come on stage to get some on stage photos, and a picture of singer Chris screaming infront of the crowd.

Having the whole set to shoot meant I ended up with so many pictures, and being allowed on stage meant I got more pictures of Drummer Mike (having been a drummer in bands in the past, I know how drummers never seem to feature in the photographs).

This gig was the CD release show for TenFourAndOut a Southampton based pop punk band, who had recently recorded with the guys from Army Of Freshmen. Great band and well worth checking out. Had to fight my way through the crowd to get near the front, and managed to grab a few photos.

Just spent a few days on the road with Lost? and Army Of Freshmen. A great couple of days, photographing some great bands.

First night for me was Southampton Joiners, and the first band up were The City Calls. Loads more pictures coming over the next couple of days including soundcheck pictures, Lost? TenFourAndOut, and Army Of Freshmen at Southampton Joiners, Lost? and Hey! Alaska at Relentless Garage in London and Army Of Freshmen at Islington Academy.

Last time I photographed The Saturdays back in June 2009, Vanessa had injured her ankle earlier in the tour and was reduced to sitting on a stool for the whole of the set, whilst the other girls danced around the stage. This time Mollie had a skin infection, and therefore The Saturdays were down to four members. Although the band were on a big outdoor stage, the girls had a much smaller production than last year.

Second night in a row at Thetford Forest, this time to see The Saturdays, who were supported by new boy band The Wanted. Not my kind of thing to be photographing, but being outdoors in the sunshine made it more interesting than the usual dark venue.

This was the second time I’ve photographed Diana Vickers in the last few months. Last time was at Norwich Waterfront, whilst time I was outside in the sunshine. Diana really impressed me the first time I saw her, and didn’t disappoint during this short support slot with Scouting For Girls.

Kele Okereke has just released his debut solo album entitled ‘The Boxer’ and is currently on tour promoting the album. Kele is better known as the frontman of Bloc Party. Fans of Bloc Party will have noticed the band have become more dance orientated over the last few years, and Kele’s solo album heads more in a dance direction.

On Wednesday I headed to London to see my favourite band of all time, The Get Up Kids. Having seen the band many times before (and been lucky enough to photograph them a few times as well) I was excited at not only hearing their new material, but also getting some pictures of them in a small venue.